(Footnote 1: According to Warton, the lady’s name was Wainsbury. Ed.)
[150] Bentley was one of these. He and Pope, soon after the publication of Homer, met at Dr. Mead’s at dinner; when Pope, desirous of his opinion of the translation, addressed him thus: “Dr. Bentley, I ordered my bookseller to send you your books: I hope you received them.” Bentley, who had purposely avoided saying any thing about Homer, pretended not to understand him, and asked, “Books! books! what books?”—“My Homer,” replied Pope, “which you did me the honour to subscribe for.”—“Oh,” said Bentley, “aye, now I recollect—your translation:—it is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope; but you must not call it Homer.” H. Some good remarks on Pope’s translation may be found in the work of Melmoth, entitled Fitzosborne’s Letters. Ed.
[151] In one of these poems is a couplet, to which belongs a story that I once heard the reverend Dr. Ridley relate:
“Slander or poison dread from Delia’s rage;
Hard words, or hanging, if your judge be ****,”
Sir Francis Page, a judge well known in his time, conceiving that his name was meant to fill up the blank, sent his clerk to Mr. Pope, to complain of the insult. Pope told the young man that the blank might be supplied by many monosyllables, other than the judge’s name:—“but, sir,” said the clerk, “the judge says that no other word will make sense of the passage.”—“So then it seems,” says Pope “your master is not only a judge but a poet; as that is the case, the odds are against me. Give my respects to the judge, and tell him, I will not contend with one that has the advantage of me, and he may fill up the blank as he pleases.” H.
[152] See note, by Gifford, on Johnson’s criticism here in Massinger’s works.
[153] Johnson, I imagine, alludes to a well-known line by Rochester:
The best good man with the worst-natur’d muse.
[154] Major Bernardi, who died in Newgate, Sept. 20, 1736. See Gent. Mag. vol. 1. p. 125. N.
[155] This was altered much for the better, as it now stands on the monument in the abbey, erected to Rowe and his daughter. WARB. See Bowles’s edition of Pope’s works, ii. 416.
[156] In the north aisle of the parish church of St. Margaret, Westminster. H.
[157] The thought was, probably, borrowed from Carew’s Obsequies to the lady Anne Hay:
I heard the virgins sigh, I saw the sleek
And polish’d courtier channel his fresh cheek
With real tears.